Back when the York Daily Record had a contract to run several New York Times columnists on our opinion pages, Thomas Friedman was one of my favorites to proofread.

He’s thoughtful. He’s not a partisan warrior. He does his homework.

But I’m going to give him thorns for one small part of a recent column praising Lancaster, the Red Rose City, for its success in creating what Friedman calls “complex adaptive coalitions” to improve the city. One paragraph takes what I think is an overly simplistic swipe at York, our beloved White Rose City.

“When visitors from nearby York, Reading or Harrisburg — communities not doing all that well — see what’s happening in Lancaster, ‘this is all foreign to them,’ added (Ray) D’Agostino (president of the Lancaster Housing & Opportunity Partnership). ‘I tell them: “You don’t know how to collaborate. You’re still working in silos.”’ When a leader from York told him: ‘Ray, you know, we take care of our own. We’re doing things our way,’ D’Agostino responded, ‘Maybe that’s part of the problem.’

Yorkers don’t know how to collaborate? That’s just not true.

Could we collaborate more broadly and effectively?

Sure.

Do our leaders sometimes work in silos?

Probably.

Do we too often take a top-down rather than a bottom-up approach to solving community problems?

Yes.

But over the last decade, I’ve seen lots of evidence that we’re changing – working more collaboratively, even across partisan lines.

Look at the recent effort to revive the Yorktowne Hotel. That iconic community asset was in serious jeopardy of becoming a liability. But community leaders – from such groups as Better York, the York County Economic Alliance, the York County Industrial Development Authority, Downtown Inc and probably other groups I’m forgetting – worked together to renovate the hotel and even landed Hilton to brand and operate it. Years in the collaborative making, that was a huge win for York.

There are many other signs that York leaders are breaking out of their silos.

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John McElligott, left the CEO of York Exponential, gives a robotics demonstration to Steve Case at the Fortress Academy in York on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017, during the Rise of the Rest tour. The purpose of the tour is to bring attention to startups in areas of the country that don't get a lot of attention from venture capitalists. (Photo11: Jason Plotkin, York Daily Record)

Kevin Schreiber, chief of the Economic Alliance, was a major player in a regional effort that included both Lancaster and Harrisburg to bring the Rise of the Rest capital competition to our community. And a York entrepreneur won!

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Organizers gathered at Central Market to learn how much was raised during Give Local York: Nearly $1.5 million.(Photo11: Scott Fisher, York Daily Record)

Consider the recent Give Local York effort organized by Bob Pullo and Meagan Feeser that raised nearly $1.5 million in its first year. Yes, we basically copied Lancaster’s Extraordinary Give initiative – but our community effort was a roaring collaborative success.

The 10,000 Acts of Kindness initiative that will culminate with what organizers hope to be a world-record-breaking unity dinner next year.

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Rev. Ramona Kinard holds the logo for a dinner that will celebrate York's unity through 10,000 acts of kindness.(Photo11: Scott Fisher, York Daily Record)

In the column, Friedman talks about how Lancaster put its stadium in the city to spur economic development. Well, yeah, so did York. And it largely worked.

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York Revolution ticketing director Cindy Brown arranges balloons with help from her Yorkshire Terrier Lexi prior to the York Revolution's post-championship community victory celebration event Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017, on the Brooks Robinson Plaza at PeoplesBank Park. The Revs won their third Atlantic League title Friday night, sweeping the Long Island Ducks in three games.(Photo11: Chris Dunn, York Daily Record)

Friedman focuses on collaboration between Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster General Hospital and the city to create a thriving, hip neighborhood. It is indeed an amazing area of that city. York College, unfortunately, is farther from our downtown. But it is collaborating effectively with York City with its Center for Community Engagement – not to mention Market View Arts.

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Dominic DellaCarpini, York College dean for the Center of Community Engagement, looks at the etched glass door that was the entryway for the former Lafayette Club at the York College Center for Community Engagement.(Photo11: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

I get that Friedman’s column was about praising Lancaster, not necessarily about bashing York. But I wish he had done a little more homework before describing York as “not doing all that well.”

York is doing a lot better than it was in the past. And it could – and I think will – do even more to foster “complex adaptive coalitions.”

It would help if Yorkers didn’t have such a collective chip on their shoulders – and if we would end our stupid inferiority complex toward Lancaster.

We would probably be much further along in our renaissance if York community leaders had embraced at least some of the ideas put forth in the Rusk Report decades ago.

And we definitely need to be more diverse and inclusive in our decision making – assuring that the people who actually live in this city have seats at the table of power (and not just at a unity dinner). York's Hispanic population is particularly under-represented on government and nonprofit boards locally.

Our city leaders also need to work on transparency and trust the public and media enough to see behind the secret curtain.